The "big stink" yesterday in New York reminds me of a go-around I had with a snotty PG&E representative a few years ago. I had just moved into a new apartment.

Me: "Yes, I'm calling to report a gas leak."

PG&E rep: "How do you know there's a gas leak?"

Me: "I can smell it."

PG&E rep: "Okay, what do you smell?"

Me: "Gas."

PG&E rep: "Describe the smell for me."

Me: "It smells like gas. Are you going to send someone out or not?"

PG&E rep: "I need to first verify if there's a problem."

Me: "There is. I have a gas leak."

PG&E rep: "Does it smell like rotten eggs?"

Me: "I... I've never smelled rotten eggs. I don't know. It smells like gas."

PG&E rep: "Natural gas is odorless."

Me: "But I've smelled gas before and this is what it smells like."

PG&E rep: "You can't smell natural gas. It's odorless."

Me: "But I smell gas."

PG&E rep: "For safety reasons, we put a chemical in the gas in order to make it detectable."

Me: "Alright, then I smell the chemical you put in the gas in order to make it detectable."

PG&E rep: "Okay, does it smell like rotten eggs?"

Me: "Look, I have no idea what a rotten egg smells like. I don't know what kind of home you grew up in, but in my family we didn't keep a lot of rotten eggs around the house."

PG&E rep: "I'm sorry ma'am, but we get a lot of false alarms and I can't send anyone over to your house unless I can verify whether there's a gas leak."

Me: "Well, how else would I know I have a gas leak other than by smelling gas? What is it about 'I smell gas' that you don't understand..."

This went on for a few minutes longer and finally the a-hole relented and sent a repairman out. Turns out that the guy next door had died and his stove was leaking gas like crazy. In all honesty, I might have been smelling gas odor mixed with dead guy. But I suppose if I had said that, my call would have been transferred to the coroner's office instead.

Posted by: annika at 03:26 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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